[junsuina]

[attr="class","bmsk"] in blackest night... Collectively, Jun has slept four hours over the past three days, so it was no surprise that she would eventually crash. Thankfully, the activity that she chose to do was a safe one, relatively speaking. She had gotten hold of one of the study rooms in order to do some of her miniature painting, experimenting with a new army for once. She was still reading up on the rules, but there were other more pressing things to worry about in that regard. She had a base idea how the faction played, but the specifics were lost on her. For now, she wanted to build and paint each and every one of them, and she had fallen asleep getting the arm on one of the figures. All around her would be containers with the miniatures, as well as an old tackle box. Dried paint and glue would mar parts of its surface, and an assortment of tubes, brushes, and small paint cannisters would be spread out over her workplace, an obvious mat down to prevent any materials from ruining the surface of the table she was working on. The hours had ticked by, and she was blissfully unaware as she had incidentally laid her head down on the table, figure still in hand and sawing as many Zs as possible. Marlene Lovechild

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[Marlene Lovechild]

Every once in a while, students at the Academy were put on janitorial duty.

Reasons were multiple. It was a tradition in Japan, ever since elementary school. It also helped save money on hiring janitors to sweep the floors and clean the tables. It was also supposed to instill the spirit of the community, but nobody believed that. Today was Marlene's turn to provide free cleaning. She was supposed to be joined by several other students on this floor, but all of them were suddenly very busy with important things that required their presence and attention. Some of the reasons cited including feeding the dog, visiting mom at a hospital, and having left a clothing iron unplugged. She had to cover for all of them. Each of them was immensely grateful, of course. One of them even called Marlene "a good friend". Surely, they were honest with the naive little automaton. Surely.

And even if they were not, Marlene did not mind it. She never minded much of anything, and simply undertook the job with the methodical efficiency of the machine. Sweeping, washing the floors, wiping the tables, wiping the blackboard, wiping the countertops, change water in the bucket, wash the rugs. Repeat. Room after room. Until it was done. People passed her by as the classes were over, and soon enough there were hardly anyone left. Except ... for one place. 

Marlene's heavy steps echoed against the creaky wooden floor. Inside, she found a girl. She was surrounded by small toy soldiers, and next to her there were paints and brushes. She was sound asleep, it seemed. How curious. I wonder if I should wake her up...

She didn't. Instead, she just worked a bit slower, and quieter. But still, efficient. The floors were swept, then washed, and so on and so forth. This was the last room the automaton girl was supposed to be taking care off. Eventually, the only place not tidied up was a small circle around the table at which Jun was napping. There was no other option. To complete the task, Marlene had to wake her up. Looming over a bit, she carefully reached out, and rested her small, yet heavy hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Awaken."

[junsuina]

[attr="class","bmsk"] in blackest night... The overwork, the spending of every second being productive, had put Jun in a deep sleep. The kind that would summon sleep paralysis demons. It was a sad fact, but all too true and with the amount of experience behind her there was enough to torment Jun in her sleep. At least, assuming she didn't go deep enough where it was safe. She had achieved the depth she needed, but with Marlene disturbing her sleep she began to surface through all the monsters living through her head; it didn't help that prior to sleeping 80k was on her mind, and all that stuff was not exactly conducive to happy sleep. And so Jun's eyes opened, and nothing happened for half a second. After that, though, she'd let out a scream, leaping up from her chair and the little figure went flying. In the process of moving back she'd trip, smacking her knee against the table and falling backwards over the chair, landing hard on her back. "Gah! Where am I, who are you, what's going on?!-" Breathing heavily and realizing she wasn't in immediate danger, she'd take a few deep breaths and wipe her face, groaning. "S-sorry, I...I must've dozed off and...oh, are you the cleaning crew?" After letting the adrenaline die down she'd look up at Marlene and study her momentarily, her heart beginning to sink once again. "Uh. Hi?" Marlene Lovechild

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[Marlene Lovechild]

... Unusual.

Marlene simply watched the whole sequence of motions and emotions that the strange sleeping girl went through in the course of the next few seconds. Going from being awake to being terrified to ballistic, to confused. The automaton did not manage to stop her launch out of her chair, nor her hard landing on her back. It was fortunate that Jun did not hit the back of her head against the hard floor. But she did appear disoriented, somewhat, with the who-what-where she had been asking. 

Most people would gasp and worry and fidget and say sorry a dozen times over by now. Marlene was calm, instead. Studying the girl on the floor for any signs of serious injury. There was none. Good. 

"Hello." - she answered monotonously, bringing a hand up to wave, when she was greeted. "My name is Marlene Lovechild. I have been tasked with cleaning this room. I cleaned most of the room, save the spot you were sitting at."

She would offer Jun a hand to stand up. 

"Are you injured? I do not see any bloodstains on my nice clean floor." - she said, having inspected the place of falling. And wiping over it with a mop a few times, after the girl had moved herself from it. Every movement Marlene made made a small mechanical whirr. Being either too smooth or too sudden and angular for comfort. And yet, uncannily efficient, in its own way. The automaton turned her head, looking over the paints and models still on the table. It did not seem like any of them were knocked over.

"What were you doing here? The classes are over." - she asked curiously, still eyeing the models. What kinds were there?

[junsuina]

[attr="class","bmsk"] in blackest night... Jun was having a hard time processing what exactly was going on, but after a few moments she realized she had completely passed out while working. "O-oh! Right, um, sorry," she says, standing up and picking her chair up. "I ah, must've dozed off, um...what time is it?" She looked back at the table, trying to get a mental tally of the figures in place. There were little skeletal looking things, all a flat grey as no paint or primer were applied. The ones that were built had some kind of weapon in hand, and a weird looking monstrosity was on the table, a mechanical beast of some kind. There were some pieces still stuck in the plastic spruce, but Jun hadn't worked to clip them out. "I'll be sore later, but I should be fine. I've taken worse hits before," she says, looking around figures and boxes as she tried to find the figure that had gone flying. "Um, Junsuina Kanjo. I'm with the hero department. And uh, I'm building models. I'm caught up on homework and there are no other assignments that require my attention, and I have the night off for once so I decided to start building a new army. I dunno if I'll ever use it, though, but there's this guy at the local hobby store that claims this faction is absolutely broken-" she stopped suddenly, looking over at Marlene sheepishly. "Sorry, ah, it's a model game. Battlemace 80k." Marlene Lovechild

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[Marlene Lovechild]

Marlene tilted her head a bit to the side.

The girl seemed to be alright, at least for now. She made note of her name - Junsuina Kanjo. She made note of everyone's names. Had a very good memory for that, among other things. However, soon the stranger pointed out what she was doing here so late. Painting an army of some kind, for a game. This was curious. Marlene knew that games were a popular past-time among humans. She herself had never played games before. 'Humans play games. If I play games => I will endear myself to humans.'

A spark of interest briefly appeared in Marlene's glassy, unblinking eyes. She looked at the models.

"I have never heard of Battlemace 80k." - she stated, honestly. Putting the mop away, she approached the table, to have a closer look at them. Her joints whirred a bit with each passing motion. The automaton girl inspected the tiny unpainted skeletons. They appeared to be made out of plastic, and there were signs that they were assembled from different pieces. They were not machines, though, she could not find a single sign of them being propelled. So they were not wind-up toys. How strange. 

"Your army appears dead." - Marlene noted the skeletal features. "Is this what you meant by 'broken'? They have not yet taken to the field, yet they seem defeated already."

She really did not know anything about this game. But the neutrally-curious tone invited conversation. And explanation. 

[junsuina]

[attr="class","bmsk"] in blackest night... Jun had dropped to the ground, scanning the floor from a lower vantage and finally catching sight of the model on the other end of the room. "Ah!" Getting back up, she stopped as she remembered that Marlene had mentioned that she had cleaned the room. Did she dare? Well...she was in the way, and holding Marlene up from the rest of her day, so she figured the best thing to do was to recover the figure, pack up, and help clean up. She could do that no problem! "It's a hard hobby to get into," she says, moving around the table to track down the figure. "The models are expensive, the rules are books and books long, and instead of having a grid you have to use an actual measuring tape to determine distances and stuff to fight. It's super archaic. Also, it involves building and painting them, which those I haven't gotten to yet." As she picked up the figure she frowned as she noticed that the arm was askew; either that happened when she fell asleep, or just now during her freakout. Either way, she looked back at Marlene, blinking. "Oh! Um, well they don't exactly move. They're not supposed to, lacking joints or motors or anything like that. I mean the game mechanics for them are really strong. They're basically undead machines, and because of it their mechanics means they're very hard to take down. They have some glaring flaws, but a good player should be able to exploit them. I'm basically looking to teach this guy a lesson 'cause he only plays one army and rags on everyone about what they play." Marlene Lovechild

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[Marlene Lovechild]

"Expensive?"

Marlene observed the models for a bit longer. They seemed... average, all things considered. Made of plastic, not glorious metal. The plastic clippings suggested mass production. They were a bit better than toy soldiers Marlene often saw children playing with, but not by a big amount. They did not impress the daughter of a skilled clocksmith. 

"Why is it so? They do not have mechanisms, made of plastic, and require the owner to assemble them on site. I could make them better." - Marlene said, as her eyes went to glance over the table, to see if any were painted yet. "I would have difficulty painting them, though."

Junsuina explained the game further, though. It appeared to be a strategy game of sorts, only played without a checkered board. The figurines were the pieces to be moved on it, which explained the lack of automation. And they were played in tournaments of some kind. Jun describing these as undead machines made Marlene quirk her eyebrow.

"How can machines be undead, if they were never alive to begin with?"

It sounded oddly personal to the automaton girl. Was she to be considered an undead machine too? She was made in the facsimile of a dead girl, after all. And tasked with living a life for her. She now looked curious, and waited for what her new acquaintance had to answer.

[junsuina]

[attr="class","bmsk"] in blackest night... Jun set the recovered figure on the table, looking across at Marlene as she took in a breath. "Well, ah, it's partly a brand, and partly because of how they have to...um...it's...complicated to explain," she says, scratching her head. "All you should know is the kits are expensive. And it sucks, but that's just how it is." She didn't expect Marlene to know how to paint them. That was something that Jun had the advantage with years and years of experience with. The other part, though. "Oh, see, in the lore of the universe-" she stopped, holding up a finger before setting it down. "It's...a long story. A very long story. Short answer, they were alive once, and then they died, but in the process they became these skeleton machines, and they don't look very machine like right now because I haven't gotten to painting them yet." Upon inspection Marlene would see that only one thing would look like it had been painted, but a nearby bottle labeled, 'Primer' would be open. "...Do. Do you have an interest in 80k? I know some people don't play and like to follow the story instead..." Marlene Lovechild

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[Marlene Lovechild]

"They were alive, then they died, and were turned into machines."

Marlene summarized. It was ... a very familiar concept to her. She remained silent, looking a little bit wistful as she eyed the gray, faceless horde on the table. She could almost feel an odd kinship with the concept of these skeletal warriors. From the gist of it, they were like her. She needed to know more. When the girl asked her about 80k, her head shifted, a soft mechanical whirr coming from the place where the head was attached to the neck. 

"I would be interested in learning more, yes. What are these machines called? Who made them? What is their purpose? Did they ... succeed in achieving it?"


She sounded almost hopeful at that last part. The tabletop game part Marlene was less interested in, largely due to the costs mentioned. And the shameful corporate practices attached to them. Still, if it were an activity humans actively engaged in with friends... then it would be useful to do so. Humans liked playing games. The automaton lowered herself a bit to look at one of the models up close.

"I would be interested in playing the game as well. However, I do not have an army. Plastic is weak. It lacks the certainty of steel. Would I be allowed to make my own?"

[junsuina]

[attr="class","bmsk"] in blackest night... Jun blinked, doing her best to take all that in. It was...almost overwhelming. It shouldn't have been, but it was. Clearing her throat, Jun began to put away some of her materials, namely the glue and the tools. "That's...uh, well, it's not uncommon for people to make their own models or kitbash new ones. Metal is expensive, though..." she says, finding the phrase a little too Mechanicus to her liking. It was here that she had woken up enough to find some of Marlene's mannerisms, not to mention appearance, to be unusual. "Well, uh, they succeeded in a way. They're called the Necrons," Jun says, leaning in to start studying Marlene. "They made their own gods called the C'tan, and the C'tan decided to make them all machines, and technically speaking they succeeded in their goal to stave off death. The problem is, now they're hellbent on killing and consuming the rest of the galaxy- what is your quirk?" The sudden pivot wasn't meant to be rude, but Jun knew that some mutations lead to some interesting quirks. Marlene was human shaped, but she was just odd enough to not be human. Jun, believing that she should be human, thought that maybe she just had a weird mutation that made her look...well, like some kind of doll. Marlene Lovechild

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[Marlene Lovechild]

"... I am confused."

These little skeleton robots and their story was confusing. So they were once people but they created Gods? Why would they be called Gods if they were man-made? And if said Gods then turned people into machines, who would be considered Creator of whom? And if the purpose of this ... machinification was to avoid death, why did it require them to die in the first place? Would that not defeat the whole exercise? So many questions. Marlene took a while to process it all. And more over...

"Why would they intend to destroy the galaxy?"

She tilted her head to the side, as if she were a pigeon. An uncomfortable angle, to be sure. It snapped back into place when the topic was changed towards quirks. It was an unusual turn of conversation. People did not change subjects so suddenly. Was it something she did, or said? For a moment, Marlene looked away, an expression of faint insecurity crossing her otherwise neutral features. It vanished as quickly and mysteriously as it came, though. 

'Should I lie?' - the machine briefly considered. 'Tell her my quirk is manipulating technology. Utilize the benefit of the doubt.'

No. She was not Mother. There was no point in trying to deceive anyone else. Not when they brought attention to it.

"I am an automaton given sentience and locomotion by a quirk channeled into me by my mother-creator, Helen Lovechild. I do not have a quirk of my own. I can channel her quirk inside of me to influence machinery." 

Marlene carefully picked up one of the tiny skeletons and stared at it, intently.

"What is your quirk?"

[junsuina]

[attr="class","bmsk"] in blackest night... Jun blinked. An automaton...an automaton? Was she being serious? Well, a lot of that would make sense, thinking about it. She was humanoid shaped, but enough mannerisms and appearance was missing the mark. Even with other mutations that made someone look off the mark of being human, mannerisms developed to compensate for various mutations (like a tail, as she'd seen with Ana), and unless the mutation was incredibly wild most of them still retained a fairly life-like appearance. Marlene, on first glance, looked human, but small nuances had made her doubt this. And either Marlene was messing with her, or she was telling the truth. Jun was inclined to believe the latter. "An automaton. That's...I haven't heard of any of those walking around. W-well, robots and other devices to mimic human appearance and behavior, but..." she trailed off. Was she being insensitive? She felt like she was being insensitive. Clearing her throat, Jun would bow to Marlene. "S-sorry, just. I don't uh. Run into this sort of thing often. Um. I can make constructs out of light..." she held back a lot of what the quirk could do. Partly out of paranoia, and partly because she didn't want to be studied like Ana studied her. She didn't want someone toying with her emotions again. "A lot about the 80k universe can be confusing, especially depending on who's point of view you look at. All you have to know is that in the grimdark future of the eighty-first millennium, all there is is ceaseless war." Marlene Lovechild

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[Marlene Lovechild]

Marlene held the stare.

She was used to people staring at her, especially after she confirmed their suspicions about her nature. There were always suspicions. And the machine took a small bit of pride in that they felt the need to confirm it, rather than just assuming outright. It meant ... that she was doing well. And, bit by bit, it took them longer to notice. 'It did take me months to tune the strings of my vocal chords to sound very close to a human voice.' 

Meeting Jun's stare with her own, Marlene mimicked a smile.

"Do not worry. I do not intend to conquer the world at this time." 

That was a joke. A way to ease tension. It worked on her gun teacher and her makeup specialist. Marlene wondered if it would work with this girl. She took a step forward, head tilted up to look at her. Finding all kinds of worry on the other's face. She made another step forward, and another. Until she stood right in front of the girl. Carefully, she would hold out the gray skeleton mini, returning it to her. 

"I would like to be taught the principles of this game. Humans such as yourself appear to enjoy spending time together engaged in these activities. It seems like a good way to..." - Marlene trailed off, her eyes briefly shifting towards the army on the table, the brushes, the paints. The look on the machine's face seemed a bit wistful, before refocusing on Jun. 

"... to make friends."

[junsuina]

[attr="class","bmsk"] in blackest night... Jun blinked again, trying to wrap her head around that statement. Was...that a joke? She had read a ton of fiction about machines taking over the world. Well...Marlene was also the product of a quirk, so maybe she was the only one and that was a joke...? Marlene was definitely a little creepy looking, and taking a half-step back. Upon being offered the figure she'd reach out to tentatively take it, swallowing. But upon being asked if she could learn to play Jun's eyes went wide. "Wait, really?" She leaned forward slightly, blinking. "You want to learn? Like, really? I-" she paused, taking a deep breath. She was ecstatic at this and setting the figure down made a noise that was her trying to explain everything all at once: factions, rules, lore, all of it. She blushed, realizing that the noise made no absolute sense at all. "Uh, okay, okay, so. Uh. I can one hundred percent teach you! But like, there are a lot of rules and, and, and..." she looked at all the stuff on the table, thinking. "Okay okay, so I was building this, and I'm running on like a few hours of sleep, and these are all not painted, so...do I have the core rulebook here..." she set the figure down, grabbing a bag and pulling it over. She began to sift through it, making a triumphant, "A-ha!" as she freed a book from it. "Okay, so. These are the basic rules for the game right here! There's...a wholllle lot of rules, depending on what faction you want to play, but this includes the very basics how the game is played." Marlene Lovechild

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